Chuck Gulick
WIIMT #4 Tribute
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf ’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
Robert Frost, October, 1923 -- The Yale Review
In this poem, Robert Frost’s message is that nothing in
the world remains pure and perfect for long.
Frost holds up the flower as an example of how quickly
beauty passes in this world. In the same vein, human
youth and beauty are quickly lost. The poem evokes
thoughts of how the perfect paradise that was Eden was
lost to sin, and of how the fleeting opportunities of each
new dawn are overwhelmed by the coming day.
So it is that the beautiful life of Chuck Gulick passed …
far too quickly for those who knew and loved him.
Chuck Gulick
1955- 2009
Son
Brother
Husband
Father
Geologist
Communicator
Information Officer
Chuck died peacefully at his home in Spokane, Wash., on
April 30, 2009, after fighting a courageous one and a half
year-long battle with lymphoma. He was 53 years old
when he died.
Chuck is described by his wife Pat as an intelligent, compassionate and witty man. He was just fun to be around,
she said, and a very, very good father to his three children
Theodore Douglas, 22, Elizabeth Ann, 20, and Benjamin
Floyd, 16, all of Spokane.
Born Charles Wyckoff Gulick III on August 8, 1955, to
Floyd Bayles and Katherine Schaefer Gulick, Chuck was
the youngest of the couple’s four children. His sisters are
Priscilla Gulick Tomlinson of Decatur, Ga., and Allison
Gulick Muller, of Greenville, S.C.; and his brother is
Theodore Bayles Gulick, of Boone, N.C.
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Chuck Gulick was a natural communicator
From the Top: Chuck gives a briefing at
a fire incident managed by a
Washington Interagency Incident
Management Team; Chuck prepares
news for information boards at the Easy
Street Fire, Wenatchee, Wash.; Chuck
leads a group of young students on a
geology field trip; Washington Interagency Management Team #4 - 2007 at
the Team Meeting in Yakima, Wash.
At the time of his birth, the Gulick
family lived in Manhasset, Long Island,
New York, where his father worked as a
dentist and his mother as a homemaker.
According to family lore, Floyd once
worked on General Patton’s teeth during World War II.
From the beginning, there was something very rare and special about this
new Gulick baby. He captivated his entire family and was their pride and joy.
His brother, Ted, said, “Chuck brought
a lot of joy into our family life, and we
all loved him a lot.”
According to Ted, the three older
children were delighted to have a new
baby brother in the family. “We took
turns feeding him and enjoyed helping
to take care of him,” he said.
Chuck had charm and good looks, even
at an early age. These attributes would
one day become the foundation of developing communication skills.
His good looks and friendly smile even
captivated Chuck himself. When he
was a young boy, his place at the family
table was opposite the dining room
mirror, and Chuck would watch himself and make faces in the mirror as
he told stories during meals. “He may
have actually been honing those communication skills at that time,” his sister
Allison said.
Chuck was 15 years younger than his
sister Priscilla, who, with her first
boyfriend, took Chuck along with
them to the beach, pretending he was
their baby. “He was a baby all the
family loved as their own,” Priscilla
said.
While in grade school, Chuck gave
an oral report about rocks and minerals. This was the first glimmer of the
geologist he would one day become.
It didn’t take long for Chuck to
develop an intense interest in science. In high school, he worked hard
at academics, mainly science classes.
He was also a member of the lacrosse
team, and played the trombone in the
band. He graduated in 1973 and immediately entered Emory University
in Atlanta, Ga.
One time in college, Chuck went
skydiving without telling his parents.
His sister Priscilla remembers him
reporting to her that he loved it, but
was so excited and scared, he pulled
both cords and ended up having to
repack the extra chute. “Mom and
Dad were not happy, and I don’t think
he ever went again. In fact, he was
probably relieved to have a reason not
to do it again,” Priscilla said. “A nice
quality Chuck had was the ability to
laugh at himself, in this case for being
so scared,” she said.
Chuck’s parents moved to Florida in
1974 when Chuck was a sophomore
at Emory. His older brother and
sisters had already gone on to college
and were working in careers of their
own. Chuck graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Geology in
1977.
Fresh out of college, Chuck started
working for a gold mining exploration company in Wyoming. Soon
after, his job brought him to Spokane,
Wash., where he began working on
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his Master’s Degree at Eastern Washington University in Cheney.
Chuck spent the first years of his life in or near big
cities, but always held a deep love of the wilderness and an intense interest in the foundations that
underlie the wild country he would one day explore
as a geologist.
During the last 20 years of his life, Chuck worked as
a geologist for the Washington Department of Natural Resources (WaDNR) in Spokane. He loved geology and getting out into the field to reclaim mining
pits. He liked exploring and mapping bedrock more
than having to regulate mining activities. He didn’t
particularly like being a ‘rock cop,’ a term he used to
describe his work inspecting and granting mining
permits.
Work was only a small fraction of Chuck’s life. His
hobbies, as an adult, included hiking, kayaking,
gardening and collecting stamps and beer cans. He
loved to play softball. He was a real fisherman.
He also liked to sail, having learned how in the Bay
near Manhasset. He once owned a sunfish sailboat
that he kept at the family’s lake home in Florida.
He also loved being with his life partner. Chuck met
his wife-to-be at a bar in Spokane in 1983 while she
was dating one of his friends.
Pat was born in Seattle on September 25, 1950 -- the
youngest of three daughters (the others are Ruth Woolford, of Redmond, Wash., and Helen Johnson, of Vancouver, B.C.) -- to Robert Patterson, a banker, and Valeria
Patterson, a bookkeeper. She graduated from Glacier
High School in 1969.
At the time she met Chuck, Pat was working as a bookkeeper. She had already graduated from Washington
State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology.
Pat remembers being attracted to Chuck’s outgoing personality, his sense of humor and love of nature. “He was
just cute and fun to be around,” she said.
“Our personalities complimented one another,” Pat said.
“We balanced each other. I was totally into logic and
math, while he was a master of facts and trivia,” she said.
“He was sensitive, fun-loving, and such a gentleman. I
am a wall flower and I can never remember names,” she
said.
Two years after they started dating, they were married
Right: Pat and Chuck
celebrate their marriage;
Below: Chuck cuts up for
the camera; Chuck and Pat
celebrate a vacation in Honolulu, Hawaii, 2000; Pat
and Chuck share a happy
moment, 2008.
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and started their family.
and Benjamin was born March 24, 1993.
After their first son, Ted, was born July 20, 1986, Pat
continued to work as a bookkeeper and went back to
school to get her Bachelor’s Degree in Special Education
and teaching certificate from Eastern Washington University. She started teaching special education at Lincoln
Heights Elementary School in Spokane. Eventually,
she went on to earn her Master’s Degree in Reading at
Gonzaga University.
Chuck and Pat shared a strong, common trait: they loved
their children. As their family grew in size, Chuck now had
“live-in company” doing many of the things he had always
loved to do. His children fondly remember eating gallons of
ice cream, going fishing and playing catch in the front yard
with their father.
Pat began teaching special education at Moran Prairie
Elementary School in Spokane, where she still works
today. Chuck continued working full time for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources.
Their daughter, Elizabeth, was born on August 29, 1988,
Chuck was a professional at
everything he did, particularly
at being a father. Right: Pat, Ben,
Ted, Liz and Chuck pose for a
family portrait; Insets: Chuck
holds Ben (left), Ted (middle),
and talks turkey with Liz (right);
Below: Chuck takesElizabeth for
a winter ride; Below, right: Chuck
reads about geology in a National
Geographic to Ted.
Chuck’s children remember him coaching lots of the soccer,
softball and baseball teams they were on. Pat remembers
Chuck even letting his daughter Elizabeth practice styling
his hair with bows.
The family spent time together at their Spokane home and
a home they own in Port Townsend, Wash. Because of Pat’s
familiarity with the Seattle area, the family spent a great deal
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... into Eternity.
Farewell, dear Explorer.
of time “on the West Side”
and Olympic Peninsula, kayaking, hiking and fishing.
While working for the WaDNR
as a geologist, Chuck’s supervisors
identified his superior communication abilities. The
combination of natural resource knowledge and the ability to write and speak made Chuck the perfect candidate
for public relations and education programs. “Chuck
definitely had a silver tongue and could smooth rough
waters,” Pat said.
“He was chosen to represent the Agency on a variety of
different issues,” she said.
That’s how Chuck became interested in becoming an
incident information officer. He worked on wildfire incidents as an information officer in the Pacific Northwest
during the last five years of his career.
In 2006, Chuck joined the Washington Interagency
Incident Management Team as an information officer.
During his tenure with the team, he worked on fires in
Wyoming and Washington.
According to WIIMT #4 Incident Commander Mikal
Barnett, Chuck was a perfect fit for the team. “Chuck
was an eloquent and knowledgeable spokesman for our
team and host units, and worked well with the media
Left to Right: WIIMT #4
division supervisor Zoe Thomas,
incident information officer
Chuck Gulick, and medical unit
leader Roxanne Ellis raft the Snake River
inspecting outfitter camp sites near the
Middle Fire in Wyoming .
Memorial contributions for Chuck
may be made to The Leukemia and
Lymphoma Society, Washington/
Alaska Chapter, 530 Dexter Avenue
North, Suite 300, Seattle, WA 98109.
and communities affected by the fires,” Barnett said. “Our
team members loved working with him and found him able
to lift their spirits during stressful times. We will always
remember him and honor his service to our team,” he said.
While most of Chuck’s co-workers saw only his diplomatic
side, his family witnessed the softer, sensitive side. “When
Chuck was young, he was given a BB gun for his birthday,”
Pat said. “One day, he was shooting and accidentally hit a
bird, but didn’t kill it. He couldn’t bring himself to end the
bird’s suffering, and was so upset that his father did it for
him,” she said.
“He was always a deeply religious man -- confident in his
beliefs, but tolerant of different opinions and religions. He
was a very open-minded person,” she said.
Near the end of his life, his religion, family and close friends
were the most important things in Chuck’s life. “Lymphoma
helped him to put his life priorities into perspective,” Pat
said. “When it became apparent that the battle with his
illness would be lost, Chuck never gave up fighting and remained upbeat and confident to the end,” she said. “He held
close those people most precious to him.”
On Chuck’s final day, Pat was called to come home by her
daughter, Elizabeth. A golden-feathered hawk followed
her car home. The hawk circled their home for hours as if it
were there to point the way for Chuck as he set out on his
life’s most important and final exploration into Eternity.